Workbench

10/15/2008

Just In Case You Forget Why It's Important To Get These People Out of Power

When the CIA expressed concern that their post-911 "harsh interrogation techniques" would look like war crimes if publicly revealed, the Bush Administration waved its magic wand and pronounced the techniques as American as apple pie.

The repeated requests for a paper trail reflected growing worries
within the CIA that the administration might later distance itself from
key decisions about the handling of captured al-Qaeda leaders, former
intelligence officials said. The concerns grew more pronounced after
the revelations of mistreatment of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and further still as tensions grew between the
administration and its intelligence advisers over the conduct of the
Iraq war.

So, to recap: the spooks doing the torture took one look at the way the Administration stood up for the pathetic misfits who'd done the Administration's bidding at Abu Ghraib -- the Administration, you should remember, sold them out completely -- and drew a line in the sand. The line had nothing to do with right and wrong, American or Un-American. It had entirely to do with covering the collective CIA ass, given the craven character of the Administration:

"The CIA believed then, and now, that the program was useful and helped
save lives," said a former senior intelligence official knowledgeable
about the events. "But in the agency's view, it was like this: 'We
don't want to continue unless you tell us in writing that it's not only
legal but is the policy of the administration.' "

The Administration, which believed torture to be necessary, did what the CIA asked, in two still-classified memos. Then they lied about it. Then the Republicans held Presidential debates and every single candidate except one insisted we need to do more of this kind of thing. Then the nominee, who was himself tortured, preened and postured against torture but ceded the CIA the authority to keep torturing anyway, so as not to be perceived as weak by the quivering Republican base.

This election is about one thing: what kind of country do you want the United States to be? It's important to remember, when Republicans held power, what kind of country they worked so hard and so dishonestly to turn us into.